This invention relates to the field of educational games and more particularly to a method and apparatus for developing, improving, and diagnosing memory skills.
Groups of basic facts or concepts that must be committed to memory form the foundations upon which learning in any academic discipline is anchored. Thus, a person's acquisition of knowledge depends heavily upon that person's memory skills, i.e., the ability to perceive, understand, and retain important information. When a person's abilities are not responsive to the particular method being used to commit basic information to memory, that person is severely handicapped.
Many people have their own individual methods for memorizing which are best suited for their intellectual capabilities. Some people memorize best under traditional rote memorizing techniques, where repetitive visual or auditory stimuli are used. If you hear or see something enough times you may remember it. Other people use word associations to memorize. For example, a person using word associations to memorize will pair up concepts to be memorized with words already committed to memory. In this manner, that person is more likely to recall the associated concept when a word from the memorized list is retrieved from memory. This method is an intricate mental cross-referencing. A similar technique uses mnemonics, e.g., the first letter or initial sound is taken from each word or concept and is used to form a word or saying that is more easily memorized. "Every good boy deserves favor" is a mnemonic used to memorize the musical notes corresponding to the staff lines in the treble clef, E-G-B-D-F. "A red Indian thought he might eat tobacco in church" is a mnemonic used to memorize the spelling of arithmetic. These techniques are but examples of the countless ways individuals commit information to memory. Some techniques work for some people, but do not work for others.
One of the most challenging aspects of teaching in any educational institution, whether it be in a large classroom or a one-to-one tutorial situation, is to stimulate each student's memory. To accomplish this, a teacher must first get each and every student intensely interested in the learning activity. Since students' capabilities are widely diverse, a teacher must attempt to reach each student by communicating on many different levels at once. This multiple-level communication is seldom accomplished because some students are receptive to a particular method of teaching while others are not. Perhaps the most distressing results of this failure of communication is that the teacher is seldom able to diagnose problems early enough to easily correct them.
The lack of communication problem is particularly acute when the student is exercising memory skills. If the student is memorizing wrong information because of a misunderstanding, a misperception, or just the inability to process that information properly, the student is learning behavior that is most difficult to correct later. Thus, it becomes imperative that the teacher be able to diagnose incorrect memorization and prescribe a procedure for correction as soon as possible.
To stimulate student interest and provide tools for diagnosis, teachers have used many different techniques or methods. Educational games are frequently used to spur student interest because the lure of competition supplies the motivational drive to get the students involved. However, educational games frequently have the same or similar disadvantages in teaching memory skills encountered with other traditional teaching methods.
Educational games fall into basically three broad categories: board games, flash card games, and bingo-type games. Board games usually have dice or spinners, visually stimulating playing boards, and movable playing pieces. Each of these components vies for the student's attention bombarding the students with attractive visual stimuli. In a learning environment such as this, a student is frequently distracted from the task of memorizing information. Although the game itself provides the motivational impetus, the quality and quantity of memorization is significantly handicapped. Dice and spinners insert an element of chance into the game that have some desirable results but they usually interject less desirable aspects from a memorization standpoint. The element of chance is provided in most games to give the less skilled student the opportunity to win over a more advanced student. However, the less skilled student frequently gives up before the element of chance has an opportunity to work in his favor or he proceeds with the game only to have the element of chance destroy what confidence he had before the game. Additionally, the element of chance frequently punishes correct responses, for example, when the student encounters a "GO BACK 3 SPACES" or a "LOSE ONE TURN". Another disadvantage with most board games is that the game is played among students only. There is no person actively attempting to exhibit behavior for the students to model, and there is no opportunity for the teacher to diagnose what information is and is not being properly memorized.
Flash card games usually comprise a deck of cards with a question on one side and the correct response on the other or on a matching separate card. When flash cards are used in a classroom situation, several undesirable results occur. The teacher flashes a card and the more advanced students quickly respond. Incorrect responses are drowned out by the correct responses sounded, and some of the slower students do not respond at all. Though teacher's behavior exists on both the social and academic levels for the students to model, there is no opportunity for the teacher to diagnose the problems of each individual student. If the students take turns responding as each card is flashed, an acute stress factor enters into the game which frequently causes several students to lose interest in the game in order to avoid the stress. These disinterested students focus their attention elsewhere. Also, if this method is used, each student does not have the opportunity to respond to each card. Thus, neither the student nor the teacher can diagnose problems and it is only a matter of chance which card will be flashed on a student's turn. Another disadvantage to flash card games is that frequently in order to avoid the tedium of excessively repeating five or ten concepts to be memorized, too many cards are used. Although the more advanced student is able to master a large number of concepts, the less skilled student is often confused or becomes disinterested. A further disadvantage to most flash card games is that they are not structured to take advantage of the motivational drive created by the competitive nature of other types of educational games. This is because using flash cards is frequently little more than thinly disguised rote memorization where advanced students thrive on their successes and less skilled students give up because they cannot adequately compete. Using flash cards in a small group or one-to-one teaching situation eliminates some of the disadvantages that are encountered while using flash cards in a classroom situation. Nevertheless, flash card games remain deficient in creating student motivational drive and therefore, are severely handicapped tools for developing or diagnosing memory skills.
Bingo-type educational games usually comprise game cards with columns of possible responses, chips or tokens to cover these responses during the progress of the game, and randomly selected chips, tokens, or cards which have printed thereon the questions corresponding to the responses on the game cards. As with the educational board games, bingo-type games bombard the student with visual and auditory stimuli. As the teacher calls out a question, each student must assimilate that information and determine what response he is going to give. The student then scans his game card to see if his response is on the card. If the student's response is correct but is not on his card, he is being punished even though he made a correct response. If the student's response is incorrect yet the incorrect response is on his game card, he is being rewarded even though his response was incorrect. Since bingo-type educational games are usually only effective when played with several students, the teacher is seldom able to determine whether or not each student is responding correctly. Even if the teacher walks about the room during the time when responses are being formulated giving encouragement and helf where needed, the teacher cannot diagnose the problems of each student. One major disadvantage to bingo-type games is that the students cannot determine whether or not their responses are correct until someone wins the game, and then they only hear the responses without the questions. Thus, positive reinforcement for correct responses and negative reinforcement for incorrect responses is delayed, reducing the value of the game in developing memory skills. Another disadvantage is that the element of chance plays a major role in the game. Thus, even though a student may respond correctly to every question the responses may not appear on his game card or he may not win the game even though they do appear on his game card.
It is an object of the diagnostic educational game of this invention to provide a method by which students develop or improve their memory skills.
Another object of this invention is to provide an educational game that is so versatile that it is used for developing memory skills in many different disciplines and on many different advancement levels.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an educational game playing environment in which the teacher is in personal communication with each student player so that reinforcement is appropriately administered.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a diagnostic tool by which the teacher readily diagnoses and prescribes for each student's individual memory skill problems.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an educational game playing environment not cluttered with excessive visual or auditory stimuli enabling the student to focus upon the information to be memorized.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide an educational game playing environment wherein competition is against the teacher rather than against fellow students thereby eliminating a stress factor associated with peer pressure.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an educational game playing environment wherein the teacher exhibits behavior for the students to model.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent upon reading the following detailed description and appending claims, and upon reference to the accompanying drawings.